He's taught people how to eat healthily, established a thriving playground trade in contraband junk food and most recently instructed us in how to make delicious meals in mere minutes. Now Jamie Oliver's back in Jamie's Dream School, a seven-part series for Channel 4 in which the celebrity chef brings together some of Britain's most inspirational figures to cajole 20 teenagers into returning to the educational system.

It's a great project and a testament to the chef's continued efforts to champion worthy causes. It's also an ideal opportunity to pen a seamless segue, leaping effortlessly from fact to fiction in order to present our six favourite TV teachers. So from strict disciplinarians to inspirational educators, join us as we report for class with some of tellyland's top tutors.

Mr Bronson – Grange Hill

Grange Hill has had its fair share of top-notch teachers over the years. But the likes of Hopwood, McGuffy and Baxter pale into insignificance alongside the floppy-haired classroom führer Mr Bronson. The bow-tie wearing toupée-topped ultra disciplinarian actually put me off of going to secondary school for a while, mainly due to his disdain for many of the pupils in his care, including poor Danny Kendall whom he memorably hounded to his death before the show got all namby pamby. One of the 1980s most iconic villains, Bronson was played pitch perfectly by the late great Michael Sheard, a man who followed the natural career path laid out before him by going on to play Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Mrs Krabappel – The Simpsons

The disenfranchised heart of Springfield's education system, it's hard to imagine that our dear Edna was once an optimistic youngster, intent on changing the world. Now she's world-weary and sex-starved, a jaded caricature of the public school system who muddles through her days on a cocktail of booze, fags and the momentary pleasure derived from squashing her charges' dreams with a derisive "HA!"

Mr Belding – Saved by the Bell

Originally titled Good Morning, Miss Bliss – though presumably changed due to its resemblance to the type of X-rated material some of its stars would later go on to star in – Saved By The Bell showcased the emotive adventures of a circus of perfectly preened pubescents. The ringmaster for this gaggle of walking stereotypes was resident Bayside Principal Richard Belding, a warm if bumbling authority figure who acted as a moral rudder for the show's teenage audience. But the strain of managing a school that consisted of one classroom, a single corridor, an oil rich football field and a diner run by a kooky magician obviously took it's toll on Belding, who seemed to be more concerned with impressing the show's blonde heart-throb Zack Morris than performing his duties as principal.

It's hard to draw a distinction between Andrew Lincoln's Bristol-based teacher and his students, but that was the point in this wonderfully entertaining curriculum comedy. A twentysomething manchild who was less than fervent about his chosen vocation, Simon would often come armed with excuses even more spurious than those of his students as he attempted to pass off his inactivity long enough to get down the pub.

Rupert Edmund Giles – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

OK, so Buffy's Watcher was more of a librarian than a teacher. But few on-screen educators can command as much popularity as Rupert Edmund Giles, the man appointed to guide the stake-wielder through the trials of arcane magicks and the perils of teenage life. His lessons were more likely to feature axes than arithmetic, but it was his role as a father figure for Buffy and the Scoobies that really stole audiences' hearts. As did the drip-feed of titillation over his misspent youth and perennially repressed dark side, which was to be the subject of an oft-mooted spin-off – Ripper – which the show's adoring fans have clamoured for ever since Buffy ended it's seven-year televised run.

Gabe Kotter – Welcome Back Kotter

George Kaplan's titular teacher isn't just one of the best on-screen teachers, he's one of tellyland's greatest residents full stop. A wisecracking tutor with a heart of gold, Kotter didn't just educate his unruly mob off wiseguy "Sweathogs", he truly cared for them too, offering this ragtag bunch of remedial learners – who included John Travolta amongst their number – a last shot at a proper education. He was their friend, their confidant and their inspiration. A committed faculty member who went above and beyond the call of classroom duty, recognising potential in a group of students who others had dismissed as unteachable while winning their respect in the process.

Honourable mentions

Susan Kennedy

Neighbours' incumbent school marm deserves a mention, if only for her exploits in reintegrating various members of the Rebecchi clan back into Australian society.

Walter White – Breaking Bad

Chemistry teacher turned crystal meth cook – 'nuff said.

Mr Collins – The Wonder Years

The algebra teacher only served a short stint on this classic piece of Americana, but his death and subsequent reappearance as a friendly ghost, provided one of the most heart-wrenching episodes in Kevin's formative years.